Huntsville gazette., 1887-08-06
REFORM THE CONVICT SYSTEM.


ed under the present convict law
prove it's effectiveness. Where such
things are continually coming before
the public worse must remian untold
The situation calls for thorough
and complete investigation of this
convict business and the enactment
of a system guarded against brutality,
outrages and the bringing of convict
labor in competiti IN with free labor.
The only way to accomplish this
is by keeping the matter before the
people, and by agitation forceing the
next legislature to some action.
The Montgomery Dispatch publish :
es All interview with some Lowndes
county convicts showing that
they had not only suffered from
brutal treatment. but had been denied
the scanty allowances for bodily com
fort provided by the present law and
demanded by nature. 1t all shows
that more light must be turned on the
subject. That prison life in our pen
itentiaries must be made reformatory
instead of such as it now is to the
poor :nntortunates---demoralizing,
iebasiug and often destructive Of
health as well as of moral.
Commenting on the story of these
convicts The Despatch says
The stories of the convicts recently
ii scharged from the farm of MesseIs.
Conner &McCurny. of Lowndes coun-
ty, published in the DIspATcH OF yess
terday, again calls the attention of the
state aud of the state PIE IS parti
culaly, to this most troublesome qnes-
tion. and shows. as every agitation
Of the subject has shown, that the
persent convict laws of the state, so
far as they affect county convicts.
mush be Ineffective.
If the two ex convicts, interviewed
by the DEPAErcH's representative,
have told the truth all 1t their treat.
'nent at this farm and the quality
Of food furnished them, then indeed,
the state has cause 10 feel humiliated
that within its borders such pactices
exist. 1t these men have not told the
tuth, thea it is for Messer Conner &
McCurdy to promptly deny Their as
sertions.
Section II of an act to regulate the
convict system Of AlaI ame, approved
February %, 1887, lequies all contrac
tors to furnish to state convicts at he
expiration of their sentences one good
suit Of clothes and transportation, r
its equivalent, to the country site Of
the county OF their con viction. This
section is law OF the state, applying
to state conyicts-prisoners convict
ID Of crimes and sentenced TO impr;s.
Onment in the penitentiary. At its
passage it in no way applied to con,
victs sentenced to hard labor for the
county, and hired out by the coun-
ty.
But section II Of an act to further
define and regulste the convict sys-
tenn oil Alabama, con tains the follow
ing clause, which certainly makes
some change in the original law:
Section H. Be it further enacted,
That all lays of the state, and oil rules
Of the board Of inspectors for the man
agement and treatment Of state con-
victs, are hereby made applica bic to
county convicts, except when work.
cd by aid in the county where con
victed.
Under the two sections named a.
bove. it is clearly the duty of con
tractors to furnish one good suit OF
clothes to county cen vict as well as
a state convict, ou the expiration
of his sentt nee. The law defines par
ticularly the time at which the cloth
ing must be furnished, and n con-
tractor who keeps convicts a week.
or even a day, in stripes, after the
expiration of his sentence. is viola
ting the law as much as if he refused
to give the convict his liberty when
his term had ended.